Technological Innovation Oversights and Foresights

The capacity for technology businesses to grow and change with the times is linked to how these businesses develop and market technological innovations. Despite the importance of technological changes for corporate vitality, there are documented instances of corporations failing to capitalize on technological opportunities. Innovation outcome is contingent upon a match between a firm's internal capabilities and its external context. Technological Innovation addresses specific ways in which the slim odds of corporate success can be enhanced. It analyzes why companies choose certain new technologies, from a technological, economic, and institutional perspective. Based on multidisciplinary research on technological choice, the book bridges research and practice to provide an enlightening and practical study.

The capacity for technology businesses to grow and change with the times is linked to how they develop and market technological innovations. Despite the importance of technological changes for corporate vitality, there are documented instances of corporations failing to capitalize on technological opportunities. Innovation outcome is contingent upon a match between a firm's internal capabilities and its external environments, even as innovation activities are complex and constrained. How can the slim odds of success be enhanced? Technological Innovation analyses why companies choose certain new technologies, from a technological, economic and institutional perspective. Based upon multidisciplinary research on technological choice, the book bridges research and practice.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Technological learning, oversights and foresights: an overview Raghu Garud, Praveen Nayyar and Zur Shapira; Part II. Learning to Flip Coins: 2. On flipping coins and making technology choices: luck as an explanation of technological foresight and oversight Jay Barney; 3. Technological choices and the inevitability of errors Raghu Garud, Praveen Nayyar and Zur Shapira; 4. Rational entrepreneurs or optimistic martyrs? Some considerations on technological regimes, industrial dynamics, and the evolutionary role of decision biases Giovanni Dosi and Dan Lovallo; Part III. Tailoring Fits: 5. Cognition and capabilities: opportunities seized and missed in the history of the computer industry Richard Langlois; 6. Changing the game of corporate research: learning to think in the fog of reality John Seeley Brown; 7. Environmental determinants of work motivation, creativity and innovation: the case of R&D downsizing Teresa Amabile and Regina Conti; Part IV. Remembering to Forget: 8. Local rationality, global blunders, and the boundaries of technological choice: lessons from IBM and DOS Joseph Porac; 9. Of life cycles real and imaginary Rebecca Henderson; 10. Three faces of organizational learning: wisdom, inertia, and discovery Dan Levinthal; 11. Organizational entrepreneurship in mature industry firms: foresight, oversight and invisibility Mariann Jelinek; 12. Minimizing technological oversights: a marketing research perspective Jehoshua Eliashberg, Gary L. Lilien and Vithala R. Rao; Part V. (S)top Management and Culture: 13. Firm capabilites and managerial decision-making: a theory of innovation biases, Janet Bercovitz, John Figueiredo and David Teece; 14. Organizational responsiveness to environmental shock as an indicator of organizational foresight and oversight: the role of executive team characteristics and organizational context Peter Murmann and Michael Tushman; 15. Technological innovation, learning and leadership Andrew H. Van de Ven and David Grazman; 16. Risky lessons: conditions for organizational learning Baruch Fischhoff, Zvi Lanir and Stephen Johnson; 17. Exploiting enthusiasm: a case study of applied theories of innovation Gideon Kunda; Part VI. Clearing the Fog: 18. Beating the odds: towards a theory of technological innovation Raghu Garud, Praveen Nayyar, and Zur Shapira.

Challenges for building a theory of technological innovation stem from the inevitability of oversights and foresights. How can the slim odds of success be enhanced? This book suggests how innovation outcomes can be systematic and enacted by technology entrepreneurs who break away from past constraints in order to actively manage present innovation activities.